Day 3: The Make Works Christmas Countdown

For the Make Works Christmas Countdown this year, we will be telling you a bit about different materials each day, with suggestions about where you can work with it in Scotland.

Day 3: Neon

Neon is a colourless gas, which gives a distinct reddish-orange glow when electricity passes through it. Typically Neon is used in the signage industry to make by fluorescent, graphic lighting. This started in the 1900’s in Paris, and became very popular in the United States for bright advertising displays. 

The trickiest bit of making a neon sign (someties known as a tube light) is in the craft of bending the glass tubes and filling them with gas. The glass bender will heat the hollow tubes until malleable, then bend into shape according to the pattern paper. 

Though neon gas glows red, neon signage is used as the term for all electric signs made using glass tubing and gas. To achieve different colours, the glass tubing can come in different colours; and the gas mix can be altered using materials such as helium, argon, krypton and xenon. A similar effect can be achieved with LEDs but often these are not as immediately bright or long lasting. 

Today, neon signage is used by many artists and architects such as Martin Creed and Tracey Emin. Neon allows a strong combination of color and light making the medium a strong for communicating emotions and ideas in work. 

In Scotland, you can have neon signs made at sign making companies such as Black Box in Edinburgh. In Birmingham, the experts are City Neon Signs.